ZOMBIES!
by NakamuraKaito
Summary: The students of Methodist High are caught in a zombie outbreak. Rated M. Lots of blood and death.
1. The School

**ZOMBIES**

**Chapter 1 : The School**

"Pelajar-pelajar, tolong keluarkan buku Web A sekarang"

I sighed. It was BM period. I hated BM. Bitch of a teacher didn't really help.

Puan Rodzitah, the aforementioned bitch, told us which page to turn to, and started us working.

We'd only been working for about twenty minutes when the screams began.

Shawn, who was sitting near the window, heard it first. "What _is_ that?"

I was sitting beside him. "What?" Then I heard it too. We all heard it. The screams seemed to be coming from MGS and ACS. "Does MGS have some kind of Sports Day thing going on?" I asked Zhi Ming. He shrugged, and shook his head. "Don't think so."

For some reason, the screams bothered me. Then I figured it out. The screams weren't screams of joy, or excitement, like the kind you hear when you're riding a roller-coaster.

I don't know how I knew, but these sounded more like screams of fear.

Puan Rodzitah told us to continue working. But none of us really had the heart to do the work. The screams had unnerved us. Gradually, the screams faded, but then, something else took its place. Again, Shawn heard them first.

"Okay, now that's just creepy."

I raised an eyebrow at him. "Huh?" "That sound. Sounds like freaking zombies or something."

It took awhile, but then I heard it too. Low moans, and groans were filling the air now. They were coming from the same direction as the screams used to.

And they were getting closer.

About the same time the moans got to their closest, I heard a loud banging. Then I heard Mr Yoong, our school principal, shouting outside the school.

"Hey! What are you doing? This isn't your school!"

Zhi Ming walked to the nearest window, ignoring Rodzitah's protests, and flung the window open.

Outside was a sight I never, in my wildest nightmares, ever thought I'd see outside of a television screen.

A _wall_ of people were pressed against the fence and gates of the school. The sound of their fists hitting the fence and gates were the source of the banging I'd heard.

That wasn't the worst of it. The people outside all bore horrific wounds. I saw one girl with her stomach ripped out, intestines trailing the ground. Another had an arm that was twisted in a way that just couldn't be natural.

"Hey, Shawn, guess you were right." Rohan said, his eyes wide with shock.

"Are you fucking kidding me?" I said. "Motherfucking _zombies_??"

Then Mr Yoong started screaming. I jumped slightly. That was _definitely _a scream of fear. Then I remembered the entrance to the construction site of our school. The "gate" was nothing more than two pieces of zinc tile, without any lock.

Reaching into my bag, I pulled out the knuckle brace I kept in my bag for emergencies. It wasn't the best weapon to use against zombies, but it was better than nothing. I was nearly out the door when somebody asked me what the hell I was doing.

I looked back. "I'm gonna go see what the hell's going on."

The rest of the class decided to follow. The guys picked up tables and chairs.

"Okay guys, we gotta protect the girls."

Something occurred to me, and I let out a bark of laughter. I was on the edge of hysteria.

"Remember guys."

"Go for the head."

* * *

As we exited the class, some of the 4 Science students were peeking out the door. When they saw us, the guys decided to come with. Throughout all this, Rodzitah was complaining and scolding us. I'd tuned her out a while ago. The teacher in 4 Science was Madam Koh. She'd already gone out to see why Mr Yoong had screamed.

Then Mr Yoong staggered around the corridor from the canteen. There was a truly terrified look on his face. He tripped, and fell onto the ground. At the same time, a _horde_ of people tromped from the same corridor, and fell upon him.

Yoong started screaming in agony. There were so many people crowded around him that it took me a moment to see why.

They were _eating_ him. The flesh was being torn from his arms, human _teeth _were ripping chunks from his stomach.

Madam Koh walked around the corner. Her eyes had turned completely white, and there were bite wounds all over her. A small part of mind that wasn't numbed by shock wondered why we hadn't heard her screaming.

Then I saw her neck. The vocal chords, hell, most of her neck, had been torn out. She stood there for a moment, then shoved into the pile of bodies covering Yoong, and fought for a piece of him.

I whispered behind me, keeping my eyes on the monsters eating my principal. In hindsight, I probably didn't need to whisper. I don't think those things would be able to hear me over Yoong's screams.

"Any ideas?"

Kong Yaw whispered back.

"Lets head through the office, then turn back and go through the construction site. Try and get to the KH workshops. They're pretty well reinforced, and we might be able to get some weapons."

I nodded, and backed slowly away from the scene. Yoong's screams had stopped. Mr Tan, the one that taught PJ, had come down the spiral staircase leading from the teacher's room. He stared at the scene before screaming his head off.

The zombies that weren't eating the principal snapped their heads around, and advanced on Tan, who was _still _screaming.

Before I could decide whether to help Tan or not, Jimmy ran past me and started pulling Tan towards us.

"Sir! We have to go!"

For some inane reason, Tan fought Jimmy's pull. They were still struggling when the zombies descended on them.

Then Mr Yoong got up. He actually stood up, not paying any attention to the fact that his chest had been _completely ripped open_, and looked straight at me, with milky white eyes.

"Guys, its time to go."

I turned and pushed them ahead of me. Shau Yong rushed into 4 Science through the front door, and dragged Fang Ching out. Fang Ching took one look at the scene behind me, and started screaming. I had to resist the urge to slap her.

Then I slapped her anyway.

"Shut the hell up, bitch! Do you _want _them to eat us?"

Before she could reply, I stepped past her, into 4 Science.

"Okay, everybody, think of this like a fire drill. Except it's not a drill."

_Or a fire_, I thought to myself.

"Follow the others. You have to go through the office, turn back through the construction site, and head straight to the KH workshops. And whatever you do, do NOT scream. Do NOT attract attention to yourselves."

The only people left in the class were the girls. They hadn't seen what went on outside. They looked at me blankly.

"You'll see what I mean. Now move it. No, don't bother packing your bags. Just leave 'em and go"

Jimmy was still screaming. That was good, I guess. Meant the monsters were still busy. I couldn't count on it to last, though.

I ushered them through the back door. As I followed after them, a hand grabbed my left shoulder.

Panic surged through me. I turned and punched with my right hand. It was the hand with the knuckle brace. My punch hit the monster, a girl with an eye missing, squarely in the jaw. Her head rocked back, but her grip held. She snarled at me. My punch had broken her teeth, but she didn't seem to register the pain.

My left hand moved up, and locked the monster's elbow so that it couldn't lean forward and bite me. At the same time, I drew my right hand back, and swung out with a reverse knife hand, with my full weight behind it.

This time, I hit the monster's neck. I felt the spine snap, and the monster went limp. I dropped the monster, and felt triumph rush through me

I looked down at the monster's limp body, and grinned fiercely.

"That all you got, _bitch_?"

Then I looked up, and saw the horde headed my way. My confidence melted away like ice on a frying pan.

I turned and ran.

Kong Yaw held the door to the office open. As soon as I was through, he pushed the door closed. I picked up the bar that had been installed in response to the recent break-ins, and slid it across the door.

I leaned against the wall and threw up into the corner.

"You okay, dude?"

I waited to make sure I wasn't gonna throw up anymore, then replied. "Yea, I guess."

I glanced at him. "I just broke a girl's neck."

He nodded. "You did what you had to do. Now hurry. The others went ahead of us. I don't know about you, but I don't want to be separated any more than necessary."

As we hurried out the front door of the office, I said. "Thanks for waiting, dude."

He waved it off. I glanced at the monsters pushing against the gate, and shuddered. Then the gate's lock, which was God knows how many years old and rusted through, broke, and the monsters spilled into the school.

My eyes widened.

"Run!"

I side-kicked a monster that got too close, and ran after Kong Yaw. We quickly caught up with the rest of the group. They were standing in the construction site, not really moving at all. I quickly saw why. The monsters were milling around the basketball court. Some of them were climbing up the stairs. I could hear screams of pain and shouts coming from the upper floors.

Kong Yaw sucked in a deep breath "KEEP MOVING! THE ZOMBIES BROKE THROUGH THE FRONT GATE!"

Zhi Ming glanced back at us, then behind us. I couldn't remember ever seeing him that scared.

"Move! Push them away if they get close!"

The entire group moved. Zhi Ming moved the guys with the tables to the front and sides, ready to push away the zombies.

As we charged through the basketball court, I glanced up at the upper floors of the main building. Rohan saw me look.

"Don't, man. Nothing we can do. You'll just die."

"I know. It just… seems wrong not to at least try."

A zombie managed to get past Hui Yang, who was on my left, with a table. It bit into his shoulder. He screamed, and dropped the table. Before I could pull the zombie off him, Aaron Previn, a 4 Science guy, stepped in, gripped the zombie's head, and snapped its neck in one fluid movement.

I blinked. I recognized that style.

"Aikido?"

He nodded. I remembered him as a quiet guy. I grinned.

"Not bad."

Wordlessly, he picked up the table Hui Yang had dropped. I ripped off one of the sleeves of my prefect uniform and tied it around his wound.

Then we were at the canteen. The fastest way was straight through, but the tables in the way made it impossible to move as a group. Without pausing, we split up, and moved through the tables.

It's amazing, how the danger of dying can make people work together.

Kong Yaw was on of the first through the canteen. He jumped over the hedge, and ran to 1A, throwing open the door.

"Kong Chern! Come on, let's go!"

I held the KH room door open as Kong Yaw practically dragged his brother in, followed by the 1A students. In the workshop, I could hear Zhi Ming yelling at someone to close the grill covering the back door.

I reached out, slid the grill shut, and closed the latch. Before I slammed the door shut, I saw the basketball court filling with zombies.

They were all headed this way.

* * *

I looked around the room. I was in the KH theory room. Beside this one was the KH practical workshop. I could hear a lot of activity. Most of the 1A kids were in this room. They looked scared as shit.

I couldn't blame them. Hell, _I _was scared as shit.

I walked into the practical room. Zhi Ming had set up a makeshift factory line.

At one worktable, the tables we'd brought with us were being taken apart.

The table legs were brought to another worktable, where they were shaped into clubs. The corners where smoothed out at one end, for ease of handling. The other end was left as it was. The corners would decrease the surface area, and concentrate the force of the strike into a smaller space.

The tabletops where brought to another table, where they were fitted with handles, forming crude shields. The shields were then sent to the last worktable, where the sides of the shields were fitted with spikes made from the leftovers.

Zhi Ming leaned against the teacher's table, bouncing a hatchet in his hand.

"Look what I found~"

I grinned.

"I'm assuming you have a plan?"

He shrugged.

"Beyond staying alive? Not really. I was hoping we'd think of something while the weapons are being made."

"Well, first things first, we need some kind of flares. We might see helicopters or something, and we could use them to attract their attention."

Kong Yaw, who'd followed me from the other room, cut in. "We could use the magnesium ribbons in the labs. Wrap them around a stick, and set them alight. They'd only last a minute or so, but they'd be pretty damn bright."

I nodded. "We'll need lighters, and Bunsen burners."

The three of us were soon joined by others, and slowly, we formed a plan.

By the time the weapons were done, we were finished with the plan.

We'd brought 15 tables with us. That mean we had 15 shields, and 60 clubs. We had enough clubs for everyone, but not enough shields.

It was decided that the biggest and strongest would get shields, because they were the ones with the strength to push the zombies back.

Our plan was simple. Get to the science labs. Once there, we'd split into two groups. One group would collect the magnesium ribbons, and anything flammable. The other group would get the lighters, Bunsen burners, and empty glass bottles. The bottles might be used as improvised grenades.

The ones going were myself, Kong Yaw, Mohvilan, Aaron, Shau Yong, Zhi Ming, Dixon, Hui Yang, and Kevin.

The team breakdown was as follows

Team 1 (Materials) : Yen, Mohvilan, Hui Yang, Kevin, Zhi Ming

Team 2 (Apparatus) : Kong Yaw, Shau Yong, Aaron, Dixon

Before we left, I grabbed a screwdriver and slipped it into my pocket. Never know when it might come in handy.

We were gathered near the one of the back doors, the ones that opened out into the grassy space behind the KH block. There were less zombies here. Most of them were banging away at the front of the block. Most of the glass in the windows at that side was broken, but the metal grills still held.

Behind us, the other guys held onto their weapons. They were to make sure no zombies got in behind us.

I clutched my club so hard, my knuckles turned white. I didn't get a shield, seeing as I was too small. Aaron had refused a weapon. Aikido required him to have both hands free, he said.

Zhi Ming looked back at us, his hand on the door knob.

"This is crazy" somebody muttered. I agreed with him. But I was gonna do it anyway. Beat sitting around waiting to die, anyway.

Zhi Ming held his hand up, three fingers extended. One finger dropped, leaving two fingers up.

Another finger dropped.

The last finger bent, then dropped.

Zhi Ming swung the door open, and I stepped through, my club swinging at the head of the nearest zombie. There was a loud crack, and the zombie dropped. With some satisfaction, I noted that it didn't get back up.

Behind us, the door slammed shut.

Hui Yang was moving, a shield held in his good arm. He slammed the side of the shield into a zombie's face, and the spikes burst out the other side of its head. His mouth was in a grim line, and his face was pale.

Moving beside him, I kicked a zombie in the face before stomping on its neck, snapping the bone.

"You okay?"

"I'll be fine."

"If you turn, I'll kill you before you can hurt anyone." I looked into his eyes, making sure he knew I was serious.

Zhi Ming half-shouted at us. "C'mon! Move it!"

We ran past the little garden in front of the KH block, past the water tank, and rounded the corner.

"Shields in front!" Zhi Ming hissed, gesturing up the stairs.

Hui Yang, Kevin, and Dixon moved up, shields held high, and went up the stairs. I let the others go ahead of me, then brought up the rear, swiping at any zombies that got close.

We were running past 4 Arts when the door burst open. Acting on reflex, I swung my club at the first shape that came out. To my surprise, it ducked.

"Jesus! Watch it, Yen!"

"Mark? Damn, good to see you. Anyone else alive?"

"Just me and Ed. All that time playing Left 4 Dead paid off." He said, smiling.

I glanced behind him, and saw Edmund. He had a piece of wood in his hands.

"Any of you bitten?"

"Nope. Lucky shit."

I tossed my club to Mark, and pulled out the screwdriver in my pocket. I held the screwdriver in my right hand, and the knuckle brace in my left.

"C'mon guys, stick close"

The three of us hurried after the others, who'd gone ahead once they realized I wasn't being attacked. I got into the labs just in time to see Zhi Ming decapitate Mr Low with his hatchet.

Ed whistled. "Damn. I wanted to kill that bastard."

I turned to Ed and Mark.

"You guys stay here. We'll be coming past here again on the way back."

I headed to the supplies room. I went past Hui Yang, who was leaning against one of the tables. When I stopped, he waved me ahead.

"I'll catch up once I get my breath back."

I nodded, and left. Zhi Ming stood beside the door to the supplies room. He held his finger to his lips.

"I heard movement inside, and the door's locked."

Zhi Ming knocked on the door, and a voice answered.

"Who's there?"

I recognized that voice, as did Zhi Ming and Kong Yaw.

"May Vin? Is that you?"

There was a pause, then.

"Yen?"

"Shit, it IS you! Open up! We're not infected."

There was a click, and the door opened. May Vin, Joel, Nicholas and Johnathan were inside.

May Vin smiled

"It's good to see you guys. I was beginning to think we were the only survivors."

The group moved into the supplies room. Zhi Ming and Mohvilan started grabbing anything that looked flammable and putting it into a bag they'd brought. I tossed the jar with magnesium ribbons to Zhi Ming, who shoved it into the bad with the rest.

Kong Yaw and Aaron each had a bag. Kong Yaw filled his with empty glass bottles, and Aaron with Bunsen burners and lighters.

When we were done, we headed back, with me leading the way.

I was barely out the door when something slammed into me. I barely got my hands up in time as my back hit the wall.

Hui Yang's teeth snapped shut inches from my face. The only things between us were my hands gripping his neck in a chokehold. Didn't seem to be working though.

I was dimly aware of the others trying to pull him off, but the positioning of his body was making it hard.

I waited for him to draw his head back for his next strike. When he did, I drew my right hand back, gripping the screwdriver tightly, and drove it straight into his eye. The screwdriver sank deep, right up to the handle.

I pushed him off me, the screwdriver sliding out with a "pop" sound.

"Told you I'd kill you." I muttered.

Zhi Ming glanced at me, then went ahead. I picked up Hui Yang's shield, and gave it to Johnathan.

"Let's go"

We joined back up with Mark and Ed, then headed downstairs.

* * *

"Okay, here's what we know." Rohan said, standing in front of the room. We'd made it back safely, though the last few meters to the relative safety of the KH room had been a bit dicey. The other sleeve of my prefect uniform had been ripped off by a zombie's teeth, but luckily, hadn't actually bitten into my arm.

"There's some kind of zombie outbreak going on." Rohan went on. "The zombies are characterized by milky white eyes, and apparently, feel no pain. They eat human flesh, and are practically impossible to intimidate. So far, they haven't shown anything beyond rudimentary thinking skills. Killing them requires blunt trauma to the brain, or snapping the neck."

"Resident Evil: Malaysia" muttered somebody, and I laughed at that.

"Being bitten will eventually lead to dying, and then reanimation as a zombie." The smile left my face as I remembered Hui Yang.

Zhi Ming took over. "If we're going to survive, we need to get out of here." He gestured at the doors, which resounded with thumps, made by the zombies fruitless (so far) attempts to get into the room we were in.

"Those doors won't hold forever, and we don't have food and water. Even if we could get the canteen's supplies in here, I don't think we have enough to last more than a week. Moreover, our handphones will run out of battery power, and we will have no contact with the outside world. We need access to a radio, at least, so we'll know if there's an evacuation, or at least a supply drop."

"I've got one of those radio's that can be recharged by a built in dynamo. It's in my house. I've also got a manually rechargeable flashlight, along with an attachment that can recharge a handphone. I've got a bunch of weapons there too. A couple of machetes, knives, that kinda stuff." I said.

Zhi Ming nodded. "Yen's house isn't too far from here. Does anyone have any objections?"

The room was quiet.

"Okay. Let's try and come up with a plan."

* * *

Zhi Ming sighed, and sagged against the table.

It had been an hour, and we still hadn't come up with anything. We only had three cars. Ridzwan's four-wheel drive, Kong Yaw's old Mercedes, and Rodzitah's RX-5. There were over 40 of us. There was simply no way 3 cars could transport so many people at once. And no one wanted to stay behind.

"I don't know what we're gonna do."

There was a loud explosion from outside. We looked at each other, before rushing to the windows. The bottom right corner of the main building had been blown apart.

"Jesus. That's where the generator room used to be. Some zombies must have gotten in and set off the spare diesel and- Oh shit!"

The main building had started to sway. Slowly, it began to tilt towards us.

_That can't be good_

"Get under the tables! MOVE!!"

I turned and threw myself under one of the tables. On the way, I grabbed May Vin and Kong Chern and pulled them under with me. I'd barely gotten my legs under the table when there was a loud crash, so loud I felt my bones vibrate, and suddenly around me there was chaos.

There were screams, dust was everywhere, rubble was falling down, and suddenly there was a zombie in my face, trying to chow down. I grabbed its neck, and twisted, imitating Aaron's earlier move. The zombie's neck snapped, and I threw it to the side. The table I was hiding under had broken, but luckily, it was only one leg that had snapped, so the tabletop just slid to the side, instead of falling on top of me.

Coughing in the dust-filled air, I got to my feet, and helped Kong Chern and May Vin up.

Zhi Ming and Kong Yaw were already up, coughing.

"Kong Chern! Where are you?"

"Relax dude, I got him right here. He's okay." I called over.

I looked around.

"Jesus.."

Not all of us had survived. In fact, most of our group were dead. I saw Puan Rodzitah, a support beam lying across her chest. The weight of the beam had crushed it. I went over, and pried open her hand, taking her car keys. She wouldn't need them anymore.

"Okay, who's alive?" Zhi Ming called.

I did a quick head count.

Mark, Edmund, Kong Yaw, Zhi Ming, myself, May Vin, Kong Chern, Johnathan, Rohan, Shawn and Ridzwan were still standing.

Ridzwan was supporting Edward. From the look of it, his leg had been hit by debris. It didn't look broken, though. I suspected deep muscle bruising. Kong Yaw was clutching the bag of magnesium ribbons. Earlier, we'd already wrapped them around sticks. We had 10 of those makeshift flares. Zhi Ming was holding the bag of Bunsen burners.

Fang Ching was kneeling, crying over Shau Yong's body. I went over and helped her up.

"Focus on surviving. You can grieve later, if you're still alive."

I looked under one of the few tables that were still standing, and found the sack of flammables. Earlier, we'd filled the empty glass bottles with the flammables, and stuffed rags into the openings. I lifted it up.

"Zhi Ming, pass me a lighter." He glanced over, saw what I was holding, and threw me a lighter.

"Get ready to move, guys."

Rohan gave me a puzzled look.

"Why?"

"The zombies are coming."

I lit the rag of one of the bottles, and hurled it towards the approaching mob. I was careful to throw it away from the path we were going to take.

The Molotov arced through the air, and the glass bottle broke when it hit the ground, spreading flames all over the place.

As I stepped forward, the rubble beside me shifted, and Aaron crawled out, groaning. He didn't look bitten, so I bent down and lifted him up.

"Damn dude, you almost missed the party."

I tossed Rodzitah's car keys to Zhi Ming, and we were off. On the way, Zhi Ming assigned people to each car as we dodged zombies.

Car 1 (Kong Yaw) : Edmund, Rohan, Aaron, Kong Chern

Car 2 ( Zhi Ming) : Mark, Shawn, Johnathan

Car 3 (Ridzwan) : Edward, myself, May Vin, Fang Ching

Zhi Ming and his group broke off towards Rodzitah's car. The rest of us ran through the zinc gate, and out to the parking lot. That was as far as we got.

The cars, Kong Yaw's old Mercedes and Ridzwan's four-wheel drive, where at the other end of the parking lot. There couldn't have been more than twenty or thirty meters between us. Distance wasn't a problem.

The problem was the mob of zombies between us and the cars.

I couldn't throw a Molotov. It would block our path, and with an even bigger mob of zombies behind us, that would be tantamount to suicide.

For a moment, we just looked at each other helplessly. Then Fang Ching solved the problem for us. She hefted her club, and with tears streaming down her cheeks, ran screaming into the mob. She swung the club left and right, and when she lost her grip on the club, she lashed out wildly with her hands, hitting, pushing and scratching.

Ridzwan, still supporting Edward, headed towards his car. Kong Yaw and his group ran towards the other car. I was going to follow them when I noticed May Vin, staring at Fang Ching.

I took her arm.

"C'mon. We'd better go while those zombies are distracted."

We hurried over, and got into Ridz's car. The second I closed the door, Ridz slammed the gas pedal, and sped off. I leaned against the seat and sighed. I felt like I'd run a marathon.

I glanced at the clock on the dashboard of the car. I was sure it was at least evening.

It was 3.45 in the afternoon.


	2. Big Daddy

**Chapter 2: Big Daddy**

Ridzwan plowed straight through the road, the power of his four-wheel drive more than enough to crush any zombie unfortunate enough to get in his way.

I winced at the wet crunching sound that signified another zombie reduced to roadkill. We rammed straight through the back gate of MGS, with Kong Yaw and Zhi Ming behind us.

Accelerating straight through the girls school, we crashed through the front gate, turned, tires squealing, onto the road, and were gone.

After giving Ridzwan directions to my house, I leaned back against the seat and closed my eyes. I thought about the people I killed. One of the MGS students I'd killed looked like my neighbour.

A wave of nausea hit me. I gulped, fighting the urge to throw up. The ride home was one of the longest of my life.

The second we got there, I stumbled out, fell to my knees, and threw up onto the ground. Gasping, I raised my hands to my face. They were shaking like leaves on a branch.

"Ah, jeez"

Ridzwan offered me his hand, not saying a word. I took it, and got to my feet. Kong Yaw and Zhi Ming pulled up and got out, along with their respective groups.

I fished out my house keys, and hit the button to open the automatic gates, half-expecting to see the gates fail to open. But they opened normally.

"At least there's still electricity."

My parents Honda Accord was gone. They'd gone to work that morning. They were probably dead now. My family's other car, the Peugeot, was still on the porch.

I opened up the plastic door, then the wooden door. Yes, I have two front doors. My mother's always been paranoid. Since my house got broken into a few months ago, we have three grills over every window in the house.

I switched off the alarm system, then headed up to my room. I pulled out the drawer I kept most of my weapons in, and pulled out a small camping knife, and the combat knife. I also grabbed a pair of heavy, spiked knuckle braces. These had a spike on each side, not counting the ones at the front, and they were heavy enough to really do some damage. I put the knuckles in my pocket. I had a set of three throwing knives too, but I was never any good with them. I took them anyway.

I tossed the knives, and other knuckle braces, to Jonathan, who'd followed me up. Then I grabbed the machetes I kept in my closet. There was also a long blade that had a blunt end. It couldn't stab, but it was a good slashing weapon. It was Edmund's. I'd been holding onto it for him.

I told Jonathan to get the two heavy staffs I used to train my wrists, then we headed downstairs. Before I left, I looked longingly at the nunchaku in the drawer. I had 7 pairs. Kong Yaw and I had spent a month in China training with them. They were the only weapon I'd trained in. But they wouldn't be able to crack a zombie's skull, or snap it's neck. I sighed, and left. I dumped the weapons on the ground in the middle of the living room for the others. I kept a machete, though.

Kong Yaw laughed, and picked up the other machete. "Dude, I will never say anything about you collecting weapons, ever again."

Edmund picked up the sword I'd been keeping for him. He swung it a few times, and grinned.

"Ima kill a shitload of zombies with this baby."

Zhi Ming kept his hatchet, but he took the combat knife. The blade was 13 or 14 centimeters long. Aaron picked up the small knife, and tucked it into the waistband of his pants. Kong Chern took the spiked knuckle braces. I felt a twinge when I saw him put it in his pockets. Those were my favorite knuckles. But the ones in my pocket were more suitable for killing the undead.

I snorted, and shook my head.

_Undead. Just yesterday, the only time I'd think about killing the undead was when I was playing Left 4 Dead._

May Vin took my last pair of knuckles, the ones with the smallest, but sharpest spikes. Rohan and Shawn both took the heavy staffs. Jonathan kept his shield and club.

I grabbed the baseball bats I kept in my home in case of a break in, and tossed them to those that didn't get any weapons.

"Okay guys, I'm getting hungry. I'm gonna go grab the radio and flashlight, then fix dinner while you guys recharge them."

By then, Edward's leg was good enough to walk on, though he winced whenever he put weight on it. I showed him the kitchen, and told him to take whatever he needed to cook from the fridge.

"The food in here will spoil in about a week anyway. May as well eat them all now."

I ran upstairs again, and grabbed the manually rechargeable radio and flashlight. The radio was bulky, because it also had a fan and an LED flashlight. The flashlight was a lot smaller, and it came with a wire than could be attached to handphones to recharge them.

I gave the radio to May Vin and the flashlight to Kong Chern, and showed them how to recharge them. It was quite simple. All you had to do was wind the handle on the side. When that was done, I helped Edward in the kitchen.

In an hour, we were all gathered in the living room, eating.

In between mouthfuls, I spoke.

"We're eating the last of the perishable food. I've got canned food in the pantry, but it'll only last us about a week. I suggest we raid the gas station outside my taman for food and water. We should probably stock up on petrol too. And we better do all that before dark. I _really_ don't want to be outside after dark."

Zhi Ming nodded thoughtfully, munching on his food.

"All right, who wants to go?"

Seeing as it was my idea, I felt obliged to raise my hand. Most of the others raised their hands too.

"Okay. I'm going to divide you guys into two teams. The first team answers to me. The second team answers to Yen. My team's going for the petrol. Yen's team will get the supplies."

Zhi Ming's team : Rohan, Edmund, Mark, Jonathan

Yen's team : Aaron, Kong Yaw, Shawn.

"Ridz's 4WD has a space behind the actual cabin. Kinda like a pick up truck. We'll put the petrol and supplies there."

After we ate, we rested awhile, then left. Zhi Ming and his team took Ridz's 4WD. My team followed in Kong Yaw's Merc. We pulled into the gas station, and Zhi Ming drove directly to the petrol storage pump. The actual storage tank was underground, but there was an opening at the side of the gas station where fuel tankers would pull up to replenish the station's stock. Zhi Ming pulled up next to the opening, ran to the storage shed beside it, grabbed a few empty gas cans, and tossed them to his team.

Kong Yaw pulled up beside the gas station's store. Before we got out, I reminded my team. "Watch it, guys, there might be infected in there."

As it turns out, I was right. The gas station attendants were staggering aimlessly around the store. Killing them was pretty easy. Kong Yaw sliced one's head off with his machete, and Shawn splashed zombie brains all over the floor with one swing of his staff.

I jumped over the counter and grabbed some plastic bags. Passing them out, I told my team. "Okay guys. Get the drinks first. Water's a priority."

Clearing out the gas station only took about half an hour. I made the others leave some food and drink, just in case there were other survivors, and they had the same idea as we did. Even so, there was a really big pile of canned food in the bed of Ridz's 4WD. It was mostly canned sardines and tuna, but it'd last us awhile.

Zhi Ming didn't manage to take all the petrol, but that was because he ran out of gas cans. The gas cans were arranged neatly in the bed of the 4WD, covering the floor of the bed. There were so many that we had to carry some of them with us in the car. I volunteered to ride in the bed of the truck, to make sure none of the stuff fell off.

All in all, we were in a pretty good mood as we headed home, and unloaded the stuff. The petrol went into the store room next to the front door, and the food and drink went into the pantry in the kitchen.

Looking at the gas cans lined up neatly, side by side, covering the wall of the store room, and at the stacks of sardines and tuna filling the pantry, I decided that we had a pretty good chance of surviving this.

* * *

One month went by quickly. We spent the time sharpening and maintaining our blades. Even so, sharpening a blade doesn't take much time. We didn't get them to a razor edge, though. A razor sharp edge on a blade would get damaged and jagged quickly, especially since we'd be using them to chop through bone.

I managed to get Aaron to teach me Aikido. In turn, I taught him everything I knew about martial arts. Aaron and I also taught anyone who was interested. Needless to say, since knowing how to kill an infected with your bare hands is a pretty handy thing to know, everyone in our group was interested. With nothing better to do, and so much free time, everyone soon became proficient. Rohan and Shawn showed the most change. The daily, vigorous exercise, combined with a high-protein diet, burned off the fat on their bodies, and they bulked up in muscle. They were still slow, but they were damned powerful. One swing from one of their staffs was enough to practically behead a zombie.

Of course, you can't stick thirteen people into a house and expect everybody to get along all the time. Minor arguments broke out every once in a while. In the end, we decided that, every time an argument broke out, the people having the argument would spar. It helped hone the martial art skills we'd learned, and more often than not, the fighters would walk away good friends.

About a week after we first started living in my house, the power went out. It didn't really affect us much. We'd avoided using lights after dark, anyway. Too much risk of attracting the undead. As it was, though, we no longer had fans and air-conditioning during the days. On particularly hot days, we all crowded around the fan built into the radio.

At night, we all slept in the living room. There was always at least one person on watch. The watch sessions were two hours long, and the persons on watch would rotate after each session.

All in all, life was quiet. If not for the eerie absence of any human noise, like the sound of an engine, life would be quite normal. As it was, I sometimes caught myself missing the sound of the mosque in my taman broadcasting prayers.

We passed the time playing poker, betting bags of potato crisps, or chocolate bars, and going on the occasional raid whenever we needed supplies. Luckily, it was the rainy season, so we easily collected the water we needed for bathing and washing by placing pots, pans and bottles outside under the sky.

It was exactly one month later that we received the first broadcast on the radio.

Kong Chern was the one that heard it first. He'd been lounging next to the radio, the fan turned on full blast. The radio was emitting nothing more than the usual static we'd heard for the last month. Then, a voice spoke from the radio. The rest of us had returned from our latest raid to see Kong Chern running out the door, arms waving like a maniac. We'd thought something had happened to one of the others. Needless to say, we were kinda relieved.

"_All survivors, this is the United States military. Please report to Methodist Girls School for immediate evacuation. Upon reaching the evacuation point, maintain a distance of at least 3 meters from military personnel unless told otherwise. Food and water will be provided once you have been determined to be uninfected."_

The same message repeated itself in Malay and Chinese, before starting in English again. I leaned back against the wall.

"USA, huh? Wonder what happened to our own government."

Zhi Ming snorted. "Probably all went to hide in their private bungalows"

A thought occurred to me. "You guys do realize, of course, that every survivor in Melaka who hears this message is going to hightail it to MGS."

"Uh, duh?"

"Well, think about this. We've managed to avoid the attention of the undead because we're a relatively small group, we've kept a low profile, and we've been damned lucky. There's going to be a huge group of people there, they're _not _going to keep a low profile, and not all of them will be lucky."

Zhi Ming nodded. "It's a risk we have to take. You heard the message. They mentioned an evacuation. We could get out of here. No more zombies to worry about. Besides, they said they'd be giving food and water. I don't know about you guys, but I'm sick of sardines and tuna."

There was a muttered assent from the group. In ten minutes, we grabbed our weapons, piled into the cars, and left.

It was only a 15 minute drive to MGS. When we got close, though, we ran into a military blockade. A soldier walked up to the car I was in.

"Sir, I'm afraid you'll have to proceed on foot from here. Civilian vehicles are not allowed inside the compound."

The soldier walked us to a parking spot. Zhi Ming and Kong Yaw were brought to parking spots nearby.

The soldier nodded at Kong Yaw and Zhi Ming's cars. "They with you?"

I nodded.

The soldier shrugged. "This way"

We walked past the blockade, and lined up in one of 5 queues. The queues each led to a military medic with a beeping gadget. He'd hold the gadget up to a person's eyes, the gadget would emit a few beeps, then the person would be let through.

As I watched, a pale looking man walked towards the medic. I noticed a bandage on the man's left arm. Blood was beginning to soak through. As the medic held his gadget up, it emitted a shrill beep. Immediately, the two soldiers standing next to the medic grabbed the man, and pulled him into a shack standing nearby. There was a muffled _whumpf_, and the soldiers reemerged. The man was nowhere to be seen.

I gulped. _These guys mean business._

Our group got through without any problems. On the other side, we were ushered through MGS's gates, and into one of their classrooms. We were told to wait. After a few minutes, several soldiers came in, carrying food and water. It wasn't anything fancy, but after a month of canned fish, it tasted like gourmet food to me.

While we ate, we were told that there was a military Chinook transport helicopter taking off from the base every 20 minutes. We'd be evacuated to a military aircraft carrier off the coast of Malaysia. The last flight had taken off just before we got here, so we had another 20 minutes to wait.

After I was done eating, I decided to go walk around the base. As I walked, I saw two .50 cal machine gun nests situated near the main entrance. There were a pair of Hummers at the back of the building. I stopped one of the soldiers to ask how they'd gotten so many men here in a pair of Hummers. The man laughed.

"Kid, we got here the same way those Hummers did. Dropped in via chopper."

The man didn't seem to have anything better to do, so we got to chatting. The man's name was Andrew Brown, a private with the 21st battalion. I asked him why the USA was bothering with a small country like Malaysia. His mood, cheerful so far, sombered.

"Kid, humanity's at the edge of extinction. The 7th Day Virus, the virus responsible for the goddamned dead not _staying _dead, killed off an entire city when it was first released by a group of bio-terrorists. Needless to say, those terrorists were the first victims. Anyway, the virus was only airborne for about a week. But the zombies went forth and multiplied. Every man we lost, came back to kill us."

"Now, I'd guess there's only about 0.5% of humanity left uninfected. America's got the highest number of survivors. About 0.2% of the total uninfected in the world. We're trying to bring what's left of mankind together, and get a fresh start."

Just then, Andrew's radio crackled to life.

"_All units, be advised, we have a pair of Big Daddies incoming. I repeat, two Big Daddies incoming, western bearing."_

"Fuck!" Andrew spat, standing up and shouldering his M4A1 assault rifle.

"What's wrong?" I asked.

"Kid, Big Daddy's one tough son of a bitch. Normally, he ain't much trouble, but we're fresh out of grenades and missiles. We were hoping he wouldn't come visit until the next cargo drop in-" He checked his watch. "-about 10 minutes."

Andrew broke open the M203 grenade launcher attached to the underside of his rifle's barrel, looked inside, and cursed.

"Damn. I was hoping I'd have at least one left."

"Don't you guys have air support?"

He laughed bitterly.

"Air support's tied up, kid. We're on our own."

He shook my hand, and pushed me towards the classrooms I came from.

"Get your friends, head for the field out back. That's where the chopper'll be landing. Me and my pals'll buy you some time."

Something in the tone of his voice made me stop.

"Just how tough is Big Daddy?"

"Let me put it this way. Unless that cargo chopper gets here early, we're fucked."

An inhuman roar drifted across the air, coming from the main gates. As I watched, a pair of grotesque monsters, looking like mutated football players, covered in sleek, glossy scales, with arms as wide as tree trunks, and at least 2 meters long, slammed _through_ the gates.

I glanced behind the Big Daddies. The crowd that had been lining up behind the gates were dead. Andrew pushed me towards the classrooms, harder this time.

"Move it, kid!"

I ran towards the classrooms as the .50 cal machine guns opened fire. I glanced over my shoulder to see a Big Daddy pick up a mangled part of the gate, and throw it at the machine gun nest. The soldier manning the gun ducked, then resumed firing. I admired his spirit. Even so, not even the .50 calibre bullets, the biggest bullet available for small-arms fire, were able to penetrate the Big Daddies armor. There wasn't even a crack on either of the Big Daddies.

The others had come out to see what was happening. I yelled at them.

"MOVE! Get to the field! That's where the chopper's gonna land!"

As we ran towards the gates, we were joined by the other survivors that had been waiting inside the base. Soldiers ran past us, faces grim with determination.

When we reached the field, we saw a group of soldiers keeping the crowd back, keeping a space open for the chopper to land.

I yelled at one of the soldiers.

"How far away is the chopper?"

"ETA, 5 minutes!"

A nearby soldier yelled at him.

"Tell them to haul ass! We won't _be _here in 5 minutes!"

The sounds of gunfire echoed from the school as we waited, scanning the skies.

I noticed one of the survivors sitting on the ground, her head hanging. Her companion, a big man, caught me looking.

"She's fine."

I raised an eyebrow, suddenly suspicious.

"Is that a bandage on her arm?"

He moved, putting himself between me and the girl.

"I said she's fi – ARRRGGHHH!!"

The girl had fallen, and bitten him on the leg. Kong Yaw brought his machete down, cleaving the girl's skull in half. At the same time, one of the other soldiers who'd been watching us drew his handgun, aimed, and blew a hole in the man's head.

"Jesus!" I stepped back as the man fell at my feet. "What the hell did you do that for?"

The soldier holstered his handgun and spoke in an even voice. "He was infected."

Another survivor cried out.

"I see the chopper!" We glanced up, and saw the Chinook transport chopper, twin blades spinning in tandem, flying towards us. It was the most beautiful sight I'd ever seen.

A soldier, probably the commander, started yelling into his walkie-talkie.

"Chopper's here! All units fall back!"

The soldiers that had been delaying the Big Daddies turned and sprinted towards the field. The chopper landed, the ramp lowered, and the crowd of survivors pushed forward.

The soldiers shoved back. One of them yelled.

"We need to unload the cargo!"

A soldier appeared from the plane.

"There's nothing to unload! We dumped most of the stuff to get here faster!"

By this time, the soldiers that had been delaying the Big Daddies had reached us. The commander yelled at the crowd to let them through. When all the soldiers were onboard, the commander gestured for the crowd to come up. He counted heads as the crowd rushed past him.

Kong Yaw was boarding, holding onto his brother, when the commander stopped him.

"We're fully loaded! We can't take anymore!"

I glanced behind me. The Big Daddies had spotted us, and were charging.

"You're gonna leave us here to die??"

Kong Yaw glanced behind him, then picked his brother up and pushed him at the commander.

"Please, at least take my brother! He's only thirteen!"

The commander shook his head.

"No. We're full."

He hit the button, and the ramp started to rise. We were forced off it.

"YOU ASSHOLE!" yelled Kong Yaw.

Suddenly, someone jumped off the chopper, picked Kong Chern up, and tossed him back into the cargo hold. As the ramp closed up, Andrew turned around and grinned at us.

"There. Now Commander Dickwad won't have to complain about the weight anymore."

His radio crackled.

"_Private! I did NOT give you permission to get off the chopper! Get your ass back in here!"_

Andrew answered his radio. "Sir, I cannot in good conscience do that. Unless you're willing to load up the rest of the survivors. Since you can't do that, I guess I'll see you in hell."

The Big Daddies about 60 meters away when a grenade landed in front of them, and exploded. It wasn't an explosive grenade, though. It was a flashbang. The Big Daddies roared, blinded and deafened by the light and sound from the flashbang.

The chopper took off, at the same time the commander spoke through the radio.

"_...Godspeed, soldier. Here's a little something we found onboard. Guess they didn't throw everything off after all."_

A long, shallow crate fell from the chopper and hit the ground. The label printed on the crate read 'ATHS-4'

Andrew's eyes gleamed. "Thank you, sir!" He wrenched the crate open, to reveal a bazooka safely packed in, along with three rockets.

I glanced back. The Big Daddies were starting to look around.

"Andrew, give me your gun."

He glanced at me. "What?"

"Give me your gun! The Big Daddies aren't gonna stay there forever."

He tossed me his rifle. I nearly dropped it, not expecting its weight.

"You've got a full clip."

I nodded, and slung the strap over my shoulder. I ran off, away from the others, firing a short burst at the Big Daddies. They roared, and charged at me.

_That got their attention._

I turned and sprinted away. There was a loud BOOM, and a shockwave hit me. I rolled, coming back up on my feet, and turned to see the last remaining Big Daddy charge Andrew, who'd separated himself from the others. Ridz, Edward, Aaron and Johnathan charged the Big Daddy, hoping to delay it long enough for Andrew to reload.

Didn't work.

The Big Daddy slammed them with its arm. I heard a loud crunch as they landed several meters away. They didn't get back up.

Only Aaron had managed to duck the blow. He popped back up, pulled his knife, and slammed it into the gap between the scales. The Big Daddy roared in pain, and brought both its arms crashing onto Aaron's head, before resuming its charge towards Andrew.

Andrew rammed the rocket into the launcher, and heaved it into his shoulder just as the Big Daddy reached him. With one swing of his arm, he sent Andrew flying as well.

Enraged, I shouldered Andrew's rifle, and fired. The rounds slapped into the Big Daddy. It started charging. I kept right on firing until it reached me, and swung its arm. I ducked under the arm, then leaped to the side, in the same direction of its return swing. That helped to absorb the shock, but I still had the wind knocked out of me, and I felt my ribcage strain from the impact. If it had hit me even a bit harder, the entire left side of my ribs would have cracked and broken. I landed, rolled, and brought the rifle up again. There was a dry click as I pulled the trigger.

_Empty._

The Big Daddy had assumed I was dead. It advanced on the others.

I heard a cough, a few feet away. I turned, and there was Andrew.

"Shit, you okay?"

He smiled weakly.

"Vest absorbed some of the impact. I broke a rib or two, though. Bazooka's over there."

He gestured with his left hand. His right arm had been broken at the elbow. I scrambled over to the bazooka, and hefted it onto my shoulder.

_Damn! This shit is heavy._

I looked through the sight, and the Big Daddy was dead center.

"YO UGLY!!!!!!!!!!"

The Big Daddy stopped chasing the others, and turned around. I pulled the trigger, and watched as the rocket turned the Big Daddy into a fountain of blood and guts.

The others ran up.

"Yen! You okay? We thought you were dead!"

I grinned savagely.

"Not even Big Daddy can take me down."

* * *

I grunted in pain as May Vin helped me take my shirt off. The left side of my torso was one big bruise. I looked down and whistled.

"Damn. Never had a bruise that big." The bruise stretched from under my arm, right down to my waist, and covered the left side of my chest.

I glanced over at Andrew. We'd improvised a sling for his arm. Luckily, it was a clean break. He'd told us to leave his ribs alone. Said his vest would keep them from moving around. I'd checked them though, and they were only cracked, not broken.

* * *

We'd gone home, taking the Hummers in the school. The keys had been in the ignition. There were a few walkie-talkies in there, so now it was easier for us to communicate with each other when we had to separate. Andrew had been an engineer before the zombie apocalypse. He'd adapted the manually rechargeable radio and flashlight to be able to recharge the walkie-talkies as well. Right now, he was building a transmitter for the radio, using parts taken from the TV, and one of our handphones.

We'd raided a grocery shop on the way back. The perishables had spoiled, but we took the canned foods, the potato crisps, stuff like that. This time, at least we got more variety. There were canned beans, canned pork, canned lettuce, canned peaches, and others. Shawn smiled.

"Never touching canned tuna, ever again."

Of course, Zhi Ming promptly tossed him a can of tuna.

"That's your dinner, you fat fuck."

Seeing Shawn's crestfallen face made me laugh so hard, I nearly cried from the pain from the bruises.

* * *

Kong Yaw tossed me a tube of CounterPain, to help with the bruises. I popped the cap with my right hand, and squirted some onto my hand. I looked around.

"Somebody help me get the ones on my back?"

The guys just looked at me.

"Didn't think so."

I looked at May Vin. She sighed and took the tube of CounterPain from me.

As we lounged around, watching Andrew work on the transmitter, with the sharp smell of CounterPain in the air, I glanced at the clock on the table.

5.23 in the evening.


	3. Armed

**Chapter 3**

It had been two days since the military evacuation base was destroyed. There were 9 of us left. Myself, Kong Yaw, Zhi Ming, Rohan, Edmund, Mark, Shawn, May Vin and Andrew.

Andrew was armed with a M4A1 assault rifle, with two full clips left, a USP .45 pistol, with 3 clips, and a standard issue combat knife.

Kong Yaw had his machete, Edmund with his long sword, Rohan and Shawn both had a heavy staff, Zhi Ming had his hatchet and combat knife, Mark with a baseball bat, myself with a machete and spiked knuckles, and May Vin with a pair of knuckles.

I grimaced as I ran through a Taekwondo kata. The bruise on my chest and back had turned a nice purple color, and it hurt to move my left arm and leg. The kata I was doing was the simplest kata, one taught to white belts. Even though it hurt, I knew I had to get my body used to the pain. Who knew when we would have to fight.

A grunt sounded from the gate. I glanced across to see a zombie trying to claw through the metal bars of the gate. I could tell that this guy was one of the first to be infected. His flesh was rotting, and had dropped off in places. Mark walked over, wrinkling his nose at the stench.

He vaulted the wall beside the gate, and waited for the zombie to come closer. When the zombie lunged, he side-stepped, and brought his baseball bat down onto the zombie's head. With that done, he climbed back over the gate, and walked back inside, looking like someone who had done a normal chore.

I thought about that. In the month since the infection started, we'd killed countless undead. At first, it had been traumatic. I mean, I even threw up, that first day. But, since then, we seemed to have become desensitized. I wondered if that was a good thing.

Rolling my shoulder, I decided that I'd had enough exercise, and went inside. I heard cursing from the kitchen, and a moment later, Rohan walked out.

"We're out of cooking gas, guys."

Zhi Ming looked at me.

"Do you know any places we can get gas?"

I shrugged. "You mean other than from all the houses around us? There's a warehouse that's used to store tanks of cooking gas, about a kilometer from here."

Zhi Ming nodded. "Okay, we hit the warehouse. We'll take the Hummers. Kong Yaw, you and Yen take one. We'll put the gas tanks in there. Mark, Rohan and Shawn, you're with me."

In ten minutes, we were at the warehouse. The warehouse wasn't exactly a building. It was basically 6 tall metal pillars supporting a really big roof.

"_Okay, I'm seeing about 10 zombies." _Zhi Ming's voice crackled out of the earphones I'd plugged into the walkie-talkie. We'd split up when we reached the warehouse. Kong Yaw was in the Hummer, ready to drive in and load up on gas tanks. Rohan and I were near the main entrance, while Zhi Ming, Shawn, and Mark were near the back of the warehouse.

"What about the dogs? I remember hearing dogs barking when I was walking here, back when things were normal."

"_Dogs? Damn, I hope they're not like the Resident Evil dogs. Okay, hold up. I see a dog near the main entrance, and another one inside the compound."_

"Can you tell if they're Resident Evil style dogs?"

"_Nope. They're not doing much. Just lying there."_

"Okay, how do you want to do this?"

"_On three, we jump the wall. Take out the undead, call in Kong Yaw, load up and go. I want us gone in 15 minutes, max."_

I told Rohan what Zhi Ming had said. He nodded.

"Let's do it, mate."

"_Okay. One, two, THREE!"_

I jumped over the wall, brought my legs up and over, and landed on the ground inside the warehouse compound. The dog struggled to its feet. I took two steps and slashed its head off, then took a step to the left, brought the blade back down, and carved a new hole in a zombie's head.

I glanced over at Rohan, who was still struggling over the top of the wall.

"Dude. Seriously. Move your ass."

I glanced across the compound. Zhi Ming and Mark were both on the ground, while Shawn was still on the wall. Zhi Ming reached up and dragged Shawn over the wall. I swear I could hear the thump as Shawn landed on his back.

Another loud thump behind me told me that Rohan was finally over the wall.

"About time." I raised the walkie talkie to my mouth.

"Good news, Zim. These dogs are slow."

He waved in acknowledgement. Taking care of the undead was easy. We were done in 5 minutes. Zim radioed Kong Yaw, who crashed through the gates, and spun the car around, facing back the way he'd come.

We managed to cram 5 tanks into the back of the Hummer. Then I got in the front, while Zim and the others went back to their Hummer. An idea struck me, and I radioed Zim. I pulled out the earphones so Kong Yaw could hear.

"Hey, remember the soldiers who died fighting the Big Daddy?"

"_What about them?"_

"They were carrying guns."

There was a pause, then..

"_Let's drop by MGS."_

I grinned. MGS was in the opposite direction of home, but it wasn't that far away. I figured we'd drop by, scavenge for firearms, and clear off.

I was wrong.

* * *

We stopped outside the MGS gates. Before we got out, Zhi Ming told us to face the cars in the direction of home, just in case.

"Okay, split into groups of two. We're leaving in 20 minutes, whether we find anything or not."

Zim didn't have to worry. Within 5 minutes, we'd found enough M4A1 rifles for all of us, even for Edmund and May Vin, though I doubted May Vin had enough upper body strength. Every rifle had a shoulder strap, so we could sling them behind our backs and leave our hands free. We'd found about the same number of USP .45 pistols as well.

"We still need ammo, guys. None of the rifles have a full clip."

I checked the clip on my rifle. Less than half left. The pistol tucked into the back of my cargo pants had a full clip, though.

Shawn broke down a door leading to a classroom. A few seconds later, he came back out, a wide grin on his face.

"We don't have to worry about ammo anymore."

Curious, I followed the others into the classroom. My eyes widened. The classroom must have been the evac point's arsenal. A row of about 20 rifles leaned against one wall, with about the same number of machetes next to them. Their machetes were sheathed in a leather cover, complete with a shoulder strap. I put my machete on the ground, and picked up one of the army blades, strapping it securely to my back. The handle of the machete stuck up above my right shoulder.

The rest of the room was filled with ammo. Boxes of 5.56mm bullets, along with spare clips for the M4A1 rifle, were stacked in one pile, and .45 ammunition, along with spare USP .45 clips, in the other. Belts of .50 caliber bullets, for the .50 cal machine guns, lay in another pile, but we had no use for them.

Rohan and Shawn grabbed a box of ammo each, and headed for Kong Yaw's Hummer. I grabbed three machetes, one for Andrew, May Vin, and Edmund, and followed them. We put the stuff in the back, along with the rifles, pistols, and gas tanks. We were going back for more when I happened to glanced at the other end of the school. What I saw made my blood freeze. Slowly, I raised my walkie-talkie to my lips.

"Guys, stay inside."

"_Yen? What's going on?"_

"We've got a Big Daddy."

The Big Daddy hadn't noticed us yet. Rohan, Shawn and I quickly snuck back into the classroom. I clicked off the safety on my rifle. The bullets wouldn't do much good against a Big Daddy, but it made me feel better.

Zhi Ming stuck his head out, then quickly pulled back.

"Okay, let's just wait here. Maybe it'll go away." A thud resounded from the direction of our Hummers, followed by several more. They sounded like footsteps, made by something really big and heavy. Like a Big Daddy.

_Please don't let that be another Big Daddy._

I looked out through the window. A monster, at least 8 feet tall, came into view. It wasn't a Big Daddy, but it was similar. It was slightly smaller, and it had no scales, but it still had huge, muscled arms. It was so close I could see that its skin was made of a tough, leathery hide. It reminded me of the Tank, from Left 4 Dead, just a lot uglier.

The monster growled when it saw the Big Daddy. Then, with a roar that shook the walls of the classroom we were hiding in, it charged. I stuck my head outside the door to watch.

The Big Daddy turned to meet the oncoming threat. It charged with a roar of its own. The two monsters slammed into each other with a loud thud. The Big Daddy swung its arm in a wild punch, but the smaller monster body slammed it, throwing off its punch.

I was still watching when somebody pulled my shoulder. It was Zhi Ming, eyes still on the brawling monsters.

"Let's go, while they're distracted."

Rohan grabbed a crate of .45 bullets just before we left. I grabbed as many holsters for the pistols as I could. Before we got into the car, I shot one last look at the monsters, just in time to see the smaller monster land a blow so powerful the Big Daddy's scales broke off, exposing red, bleeding skin. The smaller monster then body slammed the Big Daddy again, catching the Big Daddy off-balance. The Big Daddy fell on its back, and the smaller monster jumped on, raining down blows. I heard another sharp crack as the Big Daddy's scales broke under the onslaught.

Then I closed the Hummer door. We went slowly, at first, not wanting to catch the monsters attention. When we were far enough away, the drivers slammed on the gas. We must have completed the drive home in record time.

* * *

When we got home, we unloaded the supplies. Needless to say, Edmund was overjoyed when he saw the rifles.

The gas tanks were stored in the cupboard under the gas stove, and the ammunition in the store, beside the petrol. While we were doing this, Zhi Ming filled Andrew and the others in on what we'd seen.

When he was done, Andrew nodded. "I've managed to finish the transmitter. We'll radio in, tell them what we saw, and wait for orders."

He turned to the transmitter, attached a walkie-talkie to a plug, and tuned the radio to the frequency used by the US army.

"United States military, this is Private Andrew Brown, 21st Battalion. Do you read? Over."

By this time, we were gathered around Andrew, who'd set up the transmitter and radio on the living room table. There was a tense pause, then..

"_Private Andrew Brown, this is the United States military, please repeat, there's a lot of static, over."_

Andrew tweaked the transmitter, then replied.

"What about now? Over."

"_Loud and clear, Private."_

There were relieved smiles all around, as Andrew briefed the man on the radio about our situation, and also the monster we'd seen.

"_Roger that, Private, the monster you saw was Little Brother. One of our patrols bumped into him a day ago. He's tough, but not as tough as Big Daddy. He's a little faster, though. So watch it. Anyway, I'll let the higher-ups know you're still there, and I'll radio back with orders. Stay on this frequency."_

Andrew shut off the transmitter.

"Well, now we just wait."

"Hey, how d you think the Big Daddies and Little Brothers came about?" I asked. "I mean, seems a little fast, it's only been a month since the initial infection. In our country, at least."

Rohan thought awhile. "Well, I suppose it could be mutation. The Big Daddies came about because power, and armor, were the most valued characteristics. But you saw how slow the Big Daddies are. I bet the virus mutated further, creating a faster, but smaller and weaker, version of the Big Daddy."

Andrew stood up and stretched.

"Whatever it is, you don't have to worry about it. Let the lab rats figure it out. We have to focus on surviving. Now, let me teach you how to use these firearms."

He picked up his rifle.

"This is the M4A1 carbine. Weight, 2.7kg's empty, 3.1kg when fully loaded. It uses 5.56x45mm NATO rounds, and fires either full auto, or semi-auto. It has a fire rate of 700-950 rounds per minute. It has a maximum effective range of 600 meters, but has effective accuracy at ranges of 150 meters or less. The magazines hold 30 rounds, and are placed here."

He took out the magazine and showed us.

"The firing selector is located on the left side of the trigger guard. S for safety, 1 for semi-automatic, and F for full auto. Now, let's move on to the USP .45."

He put the rifle on the table, and unholstered his pistol.

"Weight, 789 grams empty, and not that much heavier when loaded. Its magazine holds 12 rounds, it uses .45 ACP rounds, and is semi-automatic. It has a mechanical recoil reduction system, capable of reducing felt recoil by 30%. The safety is located here."

He pointed to a spot near the trigger.

" The magazine ejector is here." He pressed a button near the handle, and the magazine fell out

For the next half an hour, he taught us how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble the guns. Then he had us practice until we could do it blind-folded. While we did that, he liaised with the US army command.

I distributed the holsters and spare clips. The pistol holsters were the type that strapped the pistol to the outside of the thigh, allowing easy access. Each person got 6 rifle clips, and 4 pistol clips. That made 5 spare rifle clips, and 3 spare pistol clips. Each person could carry 180 rifle rounds, and 48 pistol rounds, loaded and ready in the magazines. The pistol holsters came with holders that could hold the spare pistol clips. Rohan and Shawn brought out the crates of 5.56mm and .45ACP rounds, and we loaded up the clips. I stuffed the spare rifle clips into the various pockets of my cargos. Now, whenever I moved, the magazines clinked against each other. At least it was a reassuring clink.

Andrew turned off the transmitter, and looked at us.

"They're not going to try another evac point. Not after what happened with the last one."

"So what do we do?"

Andrew ran his hands through his hair.

"The aircraft carrier is off the coast of Singapore. If we get there, we'll radio them to come get us."

"But, Singapore's a 5 hour drive from here!"

Zhi Ming shrugged. "If we can get on the highway, we can probably reduce that time. I don't think there'll be any other cars, and we won't have to worry about speed limits. We should be fine, as long as we avoid the densely populated areas."

"But we'll have to go through Johor to get to Singapore." That was Kong Yaw.

"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it."

* * *

We packed up a weeks' worth of supplies, as well as all the ammo, into the trunk of Zhi Ming's Hummer. When that was done, we filled up the rest of the space in the back of the Hummer with the petrol tanks.

Kong Yaw, Rohan, Shawn, and I made another trip back to MGS, to get more ammo. Needless to say, we were quite nervous about it.

Kong Yaw stopped the Hummer about a hundred meters from the gates. I, being the smallest, and therefore, hardest to spot, was chosen to scout the area for Big Daddies and Little Brothers.

I stepped out of the Hummer, shouldering my rifle. I thumbed the firing selector to semi-automatic. I made my way towards the gates, eyes darting everywhere, looking for the shadow of a monster, ears tuned for the grunt or heavy footstep of a Big Daddy or Little Brother.

With my heart feeling like it was trying to beat its way out of my chest, I stuck my head around the gate, looking into the school. By now, it was 7pm, and the light was starting to fade. My heart nearly stopped when I saw a large body lying in the middle of the road. I relaxed when I realized it was the Big Daddy I'd seen fighting with the Little Brother.

I stepped cautiously into the school, rifle held in front of me. I had no idea how effective the 5.56mm rounds would be against a Little Brother, and I hoped I wouldn't have to find out. There were a few zombies milling about, but they didn't notice me. In the month since first infection, I'd gotten a lot of practice at sneaking around zombies.

I glanced at the Big Daddy's corpse again. It took me a second to notice that a fluid was pouring off the Big Daddy. The fluid seemed to be making the armor brittle, for the armor was flaking off. Then its chest started to swell.

I started backing away.

With a tearing sound, the skin around the growth split open, revealing 4 grotesque lumps. They looked like dogs, except with no eyes. Their mouths took up half of their heads, and their four limbs all ended in sharp-looking claws.

"Jesus" I whispered, and all 4 of them whipped their heads around. If they had eyes, they'd probably be staring straight at me.

I held perfectly still, keeping my rifle pointed directly at the four of them. A zombie to my right grunted and puked on the ground. Suddenly, all four of them moved, pouncing on the zombie, and ripped into it. I started backing away from the scene, my sports shoes treading the ground behind me soundlessly.

I was about 8 meters away when several things happened.

The first was that my walkie-talkie sounded.

"_Yo Yen, what the hell is taking you so long?" _Kong Yaw asked.

The second is that I realized I'd forgotten to plug my earphones into my walkie-talkie.

The zombies snapped their heads towards me, again.

_If I get out of this alive, I'm going to kill Kong Yaw_

The third is that a breeze started, blowing against my back. The monsters sniffed the air.

With a snarl, the monsters charged.

_Oh shiiiiiittt_

I fire three shots in quick succession. The first and second missed, but the third shot hit the first monsters' head, blowing it apart. The three other monsters were 4 meters away now.

I thumbed the firing selector to full auto, squeezed the trigger, and held it. Bullets sprayed from my rifle, punching holes in the second and third monsters. The fourth monster, whether by design, or luck, was shielded by the bodies of its brothers. My rifle clicked empty at the same time the monster leaped at my face.

_Not good._

"Shit!" I jumped to the side, my left shoulder hitting the pavement. I rolled with my momentum, ignoring the pain from the bruises, and came back up on my feet in time to see the monster leap for my face again.

The force from the monster slamming into me knocked me on my back. I barely got the rifle up in time to block its first lunge for my neck. With a grunt, I shoved it away. When it came at me again, I kicked it in the face, and scrambled to my feet, pulling my pistol out of its holster.

Before it could get its feet under it to leap again, I pointed the pistol at it, and kept firing until the magazine ran out of ammo. All but 3 shots hit somewhere on the monster's body.

I stood there for a moment, my hands shaking violently.

"Son. Of. A. _Bitch_. That was _way _too close." I breathed, ejecting the empty clip from the pistol, and pulling out a fresh one. It took me three tries to slam the clip into the pistol's receptor. I tucked the empty clip into its holder on the pistol holster, and picked up my rifle, reloading it as I went.

Thumbing the firing selector back to semi-auto, I headed for the classroom we'd found the ammo in, picking off the zombies as they came at me. My walkie-talkie crackled again.

"_Yen? We heard gunshots. You okay? Hold on, we're on our way over."_

I unsnapped the walkie-talkie from my belt and yelled into the mic.

"You nearly got me _killed_, you fucking asshole!!"

* * *

Rohan, Shawn and Kong Yaw found me in the classroom, leaning against a table. My hands were still shaking, but it was only a slight tremble now.

"Yen? You look a little pale."

I glared at them. "Nearly having your neck ripped out by some kinda mutated pitbull will do that to a guy."

I had to smile at their expressions. It's hard to stay angry when feeling the euphoria that comes from surviving a near-death experience. At the moment, I was feeling invincible.

"Lets just get the ammo and go."

It took us a few trips to fill up the Hummer. We took two boxes of rifle ammo for every box of pistol ammo, as we'd probably be using the rifles more. We were done in about an hour. We would have been done faster, but we were forced to stop every once in awhile and kill the zombies that had been attracted by the sound of my gunshots.

On our last trip, we heard a howl from outside the classroom. It wasn't the deep, feral roar of a Big Daddy, or a Little Brother. I had a sinking feeling that, that howl was somehow connected to the monsters I'd killed.

I put down the box of ammo I was holding, and shouldered my rifle again. This time, I thumbed the firing selector straight to full-auto. I wasn't taking any chances. I looked out the window. A pair of monsters were prowling around the school compound. One of them was prodding the body of the dog-monster I'd killed. It howled again.

These monsters looked like grown-up versions of the monsters I'd killed earlier. I only grasped just how much _bigger_ they were when one of them walked past the Big Daddy's corpse.

The monsters I'd killed earlier were the size of pitbulls. Maybe 2 feet high at the shoulder, roughly 3 feet in length.

These bastards made Great Danes look like Chihuahuas.

They were at least 4 feet high at the shoulder, and almost as long as a car. I was glad that I'd already reloaded both my guns.

Shawn swore when he saw the monsters. The sound made both the monsters snap their heads towards us. I made a mental note to punch him later.

I ran out of the classroom, spraying bullets at the monsters. Both of them ran towards me, moving in a zig-zag pattern. These monsters were _much_ faster than the ones before. I managed a lucky hit on the hind leg of one of the monsters, but it didn't seem to faze it. The others opened fire, and the monsters immediately split up. One headed towards me, and the other headed towards Shawn, Rohan and Kong Yaw. As the monster got closer to me, I absently noted that its skin seemed to have hardened considerably. The 5.56 mm rounds were penetrating it, but were doing less damage than before. I remembered how the baby dog-monsters head had exploded when my shot hit it.

I rolled behind a car, slinging the empty rifle. I wouldn't have time to reload it. I pulled my pistol, and stood up. The monster leaped, and I fired 5 shots into its belly. Its leap took it over my head, landing on the other side of the car. By the time I turned around, it had already leaped, and was heading straight towards me. A volley of shots rang out, slamming into the monster. At the same time, I dodged left. The creature slammed into the car, leaving an impressive dent, and slumped to the ground. It grunted, trying to stand. I unsheathed my machete, and swung it down into the creature's exposed neck as hard as I could.

I glanced in the direction of the shots. Kong Yaw and Shawn were reloading their rifles. I loaded my last full magazine into my pistol, and reached back for my rifle. I ejected the empty clip, shoved it into my pocket, and pulled out a full clip. I'd just pulled it out of my pocket, and was fitting it into my rifle when I heard a snarl behind me. Moving instinctively, I leaped to my right, away from the car. Another dog-monster landed at the spot I was in. I glanced at Kong Yaw and Shawn. They were fighting off another pair of dog-monsters.

_These bastards travel in packs._

The monster snarled at me. I'd dropped the rifle magazine when I jumped. I reached behind me and pulled out the three throwing knives I'd brought from the house.

_If this doesn't work, I'm fucked._

Flicking my wrist, I tossed all three knives. The knives flew towards the monster, spinning as they went. One hit the monster, handle first, and bounced off. One missed. The last knife stabbed into the monsters' front leg, severing a tendon. The monster howled in pain, and ran toward me, limping on three legs.

I turned and sprinted, firing shots from my pistol as I went. The knife was slowing the monster down, but it was still faster than me. So far, it was too busy dodging my shots to actually come after me. Then my pistol clicked dry.

"YEN!! GET DOWN!!!"

I looked forward to see Rohan in one of the machine gun nests, the .50 cal machine gun in his hands pointed straight at me.

I hit the ground, scraping my arms on the road as I skidded. Rohan opened fire, the .50 cal bullets ripping into the monster. It was dead before it hit the ground. I gingerly climbed to my feet, trying not to jar my arms. Blood ran freely from the gashes in my forearms, and dripped onto the ground.

_Road rash, they call it._

Even moving my hands hurt. I could almost see the muscle under the cut skin moving when I clenched my fist. I looked up to see Kong Yaw and Shawn walking over. They were a little worse for the wear, but I seemed to have gotten the worst injuries.

We found some bandages to tie up my arms, then reloaded our weapons and went home.

* * *

I gritted my teeth as Andrew unwrapped the bandages. The blood had dried, making the bandages stick to my skin. They pulled on the wounds as they came away from the skin. Fresh blood welled up as the bandages ripped away the dried scabs.

When all the bandages were finally taken off, Andrew swore slightly.

"Damn, this is pretty bad."

Looking at my forearms, I had to agree. The skin on the outside of both my forearms had been almost totally scraped off, and long, deep gashes covered them. The pink tint of muscle showed in the few places not covered in blood. Dirt and grit from the road was sprinkled around the wounds.

Andrew handed May Vin a pair of tweezers.

"I need to plan the route out of here with the others. Get as much of the dirt as you can, rub in antiseptic cream, and wrap his arms in clean bandages."

By the time May Vin was done cleaning and bandaging my arms, the others were finished with the plan. Kong Yaw filled me in as we ate supper. Then we turned in for the night. We'd be leaving at first light.

* * *

I've always been a relatively light sleeper. The light rustle of somebody moving around the living room roused me from sleep. I lay there for awhile, my eyes closed, trying to go back to sleep. Then someone stepped on my forearm. I yelped and yanked my arm back, and the bandages snagged on the person's foot, and tore free.

Blinking back tears, I glared at Kong Yaw as I held my bleeding forearm away from my sleeping bag.

"Watch where you step, asshole."

By this time, everyone else was up, awoken by my yelp. We ate a quick breakfast of canned beans and pork before piling into the Hummers. We'd already packed the supplies the day before, so all we had to do was drive off.

Hummer #1 (Zhi Ming) : Rohan, Shawn, Mark, Edmund

Hummer #2 (Kong Yaw) : Yen, May Vin, Andrew

I sat in the back of the Hummer, leaning my head against the headrest. I must have dozed off, because the next thing I knew, the Hummer wasn't moving, and Kong Yaw was cursing.

"What the hell do we do now?"

I leaned forward, and looked through the windshield.

The entire road in front of us was blocked by cars. Lots and lots of cars. And trucks. And motorcycles.

Did I mention there were a lot of cars?

The cars ended some distance ahead, but there was still no way we could get over there. Kong Yaw and Andrew were still discussing options with Zhi Ming when a Big Daddy stepped into view from around a building, on the other side of the cars

I grabbed Kong Yaw's shoulder.

"Back us away. Slowly."

He glanced at me, then looked ahead. With a muttered curse, he shifted the car into reverse and slowly backed the Hummer away.

It was too little, too late.

The Big Daddy slammed its fist into the ground, roared, and charged. It slammed the cars out of the way as if they were made of Styrofoam.

Kong Yaw slammed on the pedal, and we accelerated away. Zhi Ming directed us to a nearby building. He waved us into a garage, and closed the door behind us. We ran upstairs, to be greeted by three other survivors. Westerners, by the look of them. The first thing I noted was that the only male was carrying a huge rifle. It was almost as tall as he was. Judging from the open case at his feet, he'd only just assembled it. The man smiled and held out his hand.

"I'm Jim."

He introduced us to the other two survivors.

"This is my wife, Susan, and my daughter, Sally. Now, I saw your vehicles. You've easily got enough room for all of us. Take us with you, and I'll help you take that thing out."

Zhi Ming shrugged.

"You have food? And ammo for that gun?"

"I've got around 20 rounds left for this baby. As for food, we've got about 2 weeks worth."

Zhi Ming nodded.

"Take out that Big Daddy, then load your supplies into Kong Yaw's Hummer."

The man grinned, and fitted a large scope onto the top of the rifle.

"Hey, what caliber bullet do you use? I've seen those Big Daddies shrug off .50 caliber rounds like they were BB's"

The man held up a huge bullet.

"Don't you worry about that. This here is a 20mm cannon round. This baby can punch a hole through armored trucks. Back in World War II, these bullets were used in anti-aircraft guns. I've used them to kill these things before. Now, you might want to cover your ears."

The man hefted the rifle, and rested its tripod on the windowsill. He looked out through the scope at the Big Daddy, who was milling around, wondering where we went.

The man fired, and the window glass broke from the soundwave. The bullet hit the Big Daddy square in the head, blowing a hole straight through.

The man started disassembling his rifle. In two minutes, the rifle was split into two cases. Susan hefted one onto her shoulder while Jim carried the other one. Judging from the grunt when Jim hefted his, the case he was carrying was quite a bit heavier than Susan's.

"Let's go then."

It took some rearranging, but we managed to fit everything into the Hummers. The seating arrangements had to be switched around, too.

Hummer #1(Andrew): Zhi Ming, Rohan, Yen, Shawn, Sally

Hummer #2 (Kong Yaw): Jim, Edmund, Mark, Susan, May Vin

We drove through the path created for us by the Big Daddy, and soon hit the highway. I bit into a chocolate bar as we drove. The digital clock on the dashboard beeped.

8.00a.m


	4. Arrogant Prick

**Chapter 4: Arrogant Prick**

Kong Yaw yawned as he drove the Hummer. Glancing in his rearview mirror, he saw that Susan and May Vin were already asleep. He couldn't blame them. It had been awhile since they had to wake up this early.

Movement in the distance behind his Hummer drew his eye. He squinted as he tried to make out the vague shapes.

_Looks like… bikes?_

He picked up his walkie-talkie and radioed the people in the Hummer ahead of him.

"Hey, guys, we got something behind us. Looks kinda like bikes."

Shawn's voice crackled from the radio.

"_Chicken shit. Mat Rempits?"_

"Probably. They're catching up pretty fast."

There was a pause, then Zhi Ming spoke through the radio.

"_Let them catch up. These Hummers are armored. Not much they can do, anyway."_

Kong Yaw watched as the Mat Rempits got closer and closer. They zipped past his Hummer, striking at it as hard as they could. They were armed with parangs, pipes, iron bars, and the like.

May Vin and Susan were jolted awake by the clangs. Other than that, nothing really happened. The Hummer barely even shook.

The Mat Rempits went ahead, and braked in front of the Hummer being driven by Andrew. Andrew cursed, and hit the brakes.

"What the hell are you doing? Run the fuckers over!" yelled Yen Wei.

"We don't know what they want! They could be harmless!" Andrew yelled back.

"Yea, I'm sure all they want is to exchange recipes for chocolate chips." Yen growled.

One of the bikers took off his helmet, revealing a Malay.

"TURUN KERETA!!!"

The Malay waved his club menacingly. Or as menacingly as a guy can get while waving a stick at 3 tons of armored Hummer.

Rohan blinked.

"Is this guy serious? He's trying to rob people sitting inside an armored car?"

Kong Yaw's voice crackled from the walkie-talkie.

"_So, what do we do?"_

He didn't sound particularly worried.

Andrew sighed.

"Humanity's already on the edge of extinction, and people like this might just push us over."

He shifted the gear stick, and revved the engine. The Malay waving his stick stopped, considering the wisdom of his decision to threaten an armored military vehicle that was facing him, revving its engine.

Andrew released the clutch, and the Hummer leaped forward like a horse kicked in the ass. The Malay shouted and jumped to the side, and the Hummer bucked as it ran over the Malay's bike.

Behind Andrew, Kong Yaw grinned as he shifted his Hummer into gear.

"Take _that, _cockface!"

The Mat Rempits swung their machines around, shouting. They were angry. After all, all they wanted was to rob those people. Why couldn't they just cooperate?

The light, modified motorcycles accelerated much faster than the heavy Hummers, and soon the bikers were zipping past the Hummers, swinging their weapons as hard as they could.

Zhi Ming yawned. "Is it raining out there?"

Yen Wei laughed.

"We better stop them before they think of hitting our tyres."

He clicked off the safety on his pistol, and waited for the bikers to go past before rolling down the window. Leaning out, he fired 3 shots into the air. The effect was immediate.

Pissed off, angry, macho bikers turned into screaming boys in the space of a few seconds. The 'bikers' immediately hit the throttle, and were out of sight in 5 minutes.

Yen Wei rolled the window back up, a satisfied look on his face.

"That was easy."

* * *

"Fuck!"

Edmund kicked at the pile of rocks blocking the road. Apparently, a landslide had occurred here, rendering the entire highway impassable. Andrew stood in front of his Hummer, consulting a map spread out on the bonnet.

"Okay, according to this, we should be about 2 hours away from the Singapore-Johor bridge by car. On foot, it'll take us 1 to 2 weeks, tops. Good thing we packed our supplies in bags."

Zhi Ming looked around.

"We might have to scavenge for food and water on the way. Shawn, Rohan, get over here."

Zhi Ming distributed the supplies, giving each person a suitable amount to carry. He kept 4 people unburdened at all times, to react to threats, and cover the others. These 4 would rotate every hour. Of course, Zhi Ming didn't carry anything.

"Okay" Zhi Ming spoke in a cheerful tone. "Let's get going."

Rohan and Shawn glared at him, each of them carrying three boxes of ammunition, as well as food.

"Asshole"

* * *

Edmund crested the top of a hill, looking down at the zombies below. He clicked off the safety on his rifle, and looked down the sights. Targeting the nearest zombie's head, his finger started to squeeze.

Another finger came in and stopped the trigger from moving any further.

"I'm pretty sure I told everyone to conserve ammo." Zhi Ming's voice was cold.

"We had to leave a lot of ammo behind. We need to conserve what we have left. There's no telling what's waiting for us in Singapore."

Zhi Ming looked at the zombies below the hill.

"Besides, Mark can handle this."

Mark unsheathed his machete with a fluid motion. He'd had a lot of practice lately. His rifle was back with the group. His legs bunched, then sprung forward, moving him towards the zombies. The blade glittered in the noon light, and then four zombies were dead, their heads rolling on the ground. With a sigh, he buried the machete into the ground, cleansing it of blood.

The rest of the group came over the hill, and made their way down.

It had been three days since they had begun their journey on foot. During the daytime, the group moved cautiously, with two members scouting ahead at all times. At night, they slept under the stars. Thankfully, it was the dry season, and it had not rained. This was about to change, though.

Andrew cursed as he looked up at the dark thunderclouds above him.

"We're going to have to find some shelter tonight, guys."

Jim consulted the map they'd brought with them.

"Looks like there's a small town near here. I'd say about an hour's walk."

Andrew looked at the clouds again.

"Better make it half an hour."

* * *

_Damn, I'm out of shape._

Yen Wei adjusted the straps of his bag. The movement made the scabs on his arms stretch painfully. Jim led the way, pausing every few minutes to check his map.

The group had gone off the roads, to avoid the roaming bands of bikers. As a result, their journey had been lengthened, as they had to detour around the roads.

Suddenly, Jim stopped, and folded his map, putting it into his pocket.

"We're here, guys."

"And not a moment too soon" muttered Andrew, still keeping an eye on the clouds overhead.

The group ran into the nearest building, thankful for the shelter. Barely ten minutes later, the clouds let loose.

Yen Wei dropped his bag with a grateful sigh, and rubbed at the scabs on his forearms through the bandages. The bandages were starting to turn slightly pink.

"I'm probably a goddamn beacon to any zombie close enough to smell the blood." Yen Wei grumbled, eyeing his bandages.

Kong Yaw looked around.

"Looks like we're in some kinda office. The door was open, so I guess the occupants left in a hurry. Either that, or they never left."

Kong Yaw drew his machete.

"Mark, Shawn, come with me. We better clear the building. Grab the flashlights."

After they'd dug out the flashlights from the bags, the three of them left, going deeper into the building.

Rohan drank the last of the water in his bottle, then put it outside, to collect rainwater. Seeing this, everyone else did the same.

Yen Wei sat back against a wall, and let his head rest.

"Jim, how far are we from Singapore?"

Jim shrugged.

"I'd say about a day, maybe a day and a half."

Yen Wei smiled slightly.

"We're almost there then."

Gunshots pierced the air. Yen Wei bolted up, eyes wide. May Vin looked around.

"That came from outside!"

"There are survivors out there! We have to help them!"

Zhi Ming raised a hand.

"Hold it right there. We can barely help ourselves. Why should we go help them?"

"If they survived this long, they should be able to take care of themselves, and they probably have their own supplies." remarked Jim. "We'd probably have a better chance of making it if we get more people. Safety in numbers, and all that."

Zhi Ming nodded. "Yen, Edmund, May Vin, go check it out. But be careful."

* * *

Jia Jet fired another shot from his .357 revolver. He'd stolen the gun from the local gun shop, along with a few cases of ammo. As far as he knew, he was the only human left alive in the world. In the past month, he'd lived like a king. He ate whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted, and he had free rein to do whatever he pleased.

He'd torched several of his teachers' houses before realizing that there was no point, as the teachers were probably already dead. He torched a few more houses anyway, out of spite.

In the first few days of infection, he'd been overjoyed, after getting over his initial panic. Everyone was dead! Well, almost everyone. Jia Jet smiled to himself as he remembered running across a girl from his class. The girl had been overjoyed to see him, and Jia Jet couldn't blame her. After all, not everyone had the privilege of being alone with the great Jet, let alone being saved by him.

That night, as he tried to take off the girl's clothes, he'd been surprised when she fought him. Shouldn't she be happy that the Great and Awesome Jet wanted to fuck her? Enraged, Jet had tied her up and fucked her senseless. After the deed, he felt a little guilty, but it was quickly forgotten. Unfortunately, the girl had bitten her tongue, and died. Jet had brushed off the incident. She couldn't handle the greatness of The Jet anyway.

Jia Jet grinned. Only 16 years old, and he'd already gotten laid! He really was incredible. Too bad there weren't any other females around. The Missile could go for another run.

Jia Jet fired off his last shot, then popped open the revolver's wheel magazine. He caught the empty speedloader as it fell out, and quickly slipped a new one into the revolver. With a flick of his wrist, the wheel magazine popped back in. He'd been lucky to find a few of those speedloaders in the gun shop. They held the bullets so that loading the revolver was much easier.

"Hey!"

Jia Jet turned at the sound. His eyes narrowed at the sight of two guys rounding the corner. This was _his _territory. _His _kingdom. No one else was allowed here. Jia Jet was raising his revolver when a third figure stepped around the corner. Jia Jet's eyes widened. A girl! Okay, a little on the plump side, but The Jet was magnanimous enough to ignore that. In his pants, The Missile stirred.

The lead figure, a big guy, stopped and held up his palms.

"Whoa, hold up. We're not zombies."

Jia Jet let the revolver drop, and gave the girl his best smile.

"Man, am I glad to see you."

* * *

Yen Wei eyed the newcomer, and mentally went over what he knew of the guy. Which wasn't much. 16 years old, and alone since the start of the infection. That was all he knew. Yen had seen the way the guy's expression had changed when he saw May Vin. Before she had rounded the corner, Yen had expected the guy to start shooting, and was getting ready to shove Edmund out of the way. The second May Vin had entered the new guy's sight, his demeanor had changed completely.

Now, on the way back to the others, the guy had assumed the lead, and was talking to May Vin. Yen Wei didn't miss the way he kept 'accidentally' bumping into her, and resolved to keep an eye on the new guy.

Still, the guy's weapons were impressive. They'd stopped by the guy's house, which was quite well fortified, and picked up the rest of his stuff. He had two Smith & Wesson .357 revolvers, both with 3 inch barrels, and 5 cases of ammo. Yen Wei did the math. Each case held about 50 rounds, so that made 250 rounds of ammo. An impressive amount by any standard. Yen Wei made a note to visit the gun shop the guy said he'd gotten his stuff from.

Behing him, Edmund toted a shotgun Jia Jet had given him. Even the shotgun was a quality piece. Mossberg 935 Magnum Autoloader. Semi-automatic, and could hold 6 rounds of 12-gauge shotgun ammo. Jia Jet had good taste in weaponry. And that wasn't all.

Slung behind his back, Jia Jet carried a long, gracefully curved katana. The blade was roughly 2 and a half feet long, and probably had full tang, though Yen Wei hadn't seen it unsheathed yet.

Suddenly, Jhia Jet froze in place, before ducking down an alley, dragging May Vin with him. Yen Wei stopped for a second, caught off guard, then followed them.

"What the hell are you doing?" He hissed when he caught up to them.

Jia Jet looked at the guy, a sneer on his face.

"Are you blind? There are monsters that way."

"Look, if you're too scared to go through a few zombies-"

"_Not _zombies!" Jia Jet hissed. How could this guy be so stupid? "_Monsters_. They hatch from dead bodies, after being implanted by their parents. They're strong, and fast."

A growl at the entrance of the alley made both of them freeze. They turned to look. A dog-monster stood there, snarling at them.

Yen Wei noted that this guy had eyes, unlike the previous ones he'd encountered. Then he realized Jia Jet was gone. He glanced behind him to see Jia Jet's rapidly receding back. He turned back in time to see the dog-monster joined by one, then two, of its brothers.

Yen Wei and Edmund caught up to the other two quickly.

"I hope you have a plan!" Yen Wei said between breaths. He glanced behind to see the undead canines in hot pursuit. They were gaining.

"Through that door!" Jia Jet raced ahead and held the door open for May Vin. Yen Wei pushed Edmund ahead of him, then took the hand offered to him by Jia Jet. Too late, Yen Wei saw the gleam in Jia Jet's eyes.

"What are-"

Jia Jet pulled Yen Wei's arm away from the door, throwing him off balance. Yen Wei fell and scrambled to his feet, trying to get to the door. Something snagged his pant leg, and Yen fell again. Edmund appeared at the door, his shotgun raised. There was a loud bang, and the force pulling at his leg disappeared. Yen jumped and rolled through the door, and Edmund slammed it shut behind him, while ramming another round into the shotgun.

"What the hell was that?!" Yen roared, slamming Jia Jet against the wall, pressing his forearm against Jia Jet's throat.

"Yen, what the hell are you doing?" shouted May Vin.

"The bastard made me fall. He almost got me killed!" Yen Wei shouted back, not turning away from Jia Jet.

Jia Jet raised his hands, palms out.

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Yen Wei growled, then let go of Jia Jet, and stalked away. May Vin went over to Jia Jet, who was coughing.

"Are you alright?" she said, putting a hand on his shoulder. Jia Jet reached up, and took her hand in his. Looking into her eyes, he smiled. "I will be"

_Right after I fuck the hell out of you_

Yen Wei's voice drifted over to them. "Let's get the hell out of here!"

Jia Jet's eyes narrowed as he rubbed his sore neck. That guy was gonna pay for hurting the Great Jet!

May Vin misinterpreted Jia Jet's expression. "Don't worry about him. He just has a really short temper."

Jia Jet smiled at her. "It's alright."

The group hurried onward, wanting to get out of the rain.

* * *

Jia Jet's eyes widened when he entered the building the others led him to.

_Well what do we have here…._

He went straight to Susan, a smile pasted on his face.

"Hi, I'm Jia Jet. You can call me Jet."

Before the girl could reply, a middle-aged man stepped between him and the girl. The man gave him a suspicious look.

"I'm Jim."

Jia Jet held out his hand for a handshake. Jim kept looking him in the eyes, arms folded across his chest. After a few tense seconds, Jia Jet lowered his hand.

Zhi Ming was talking to Edmund.

"You only found this one guy?"

Edmund shrugged.

"According to him, he's the only dude left in town. Check out what he gave me though."

Edmund hefted the semi-automatic shotgun. Zhi Ming raised an eyebrow.

"You got enough ammo for that?"

Edmund grinned

"3 boxes, bitch."

Yen Wei stalked past, his features stony. He went past Kong Yaw, who was just returning from securing the building. Kong Yaw gestured at Yen Wei's back.

"What's with him?" Kong Yaw winced when Yen Wei slammed the door behind him.

May Vin shrugged. "He says Jia Jet tried to get him killed when we were running from a bunch of those zombie dogs."

Jia Jet snorted. "Hey, it ain't my fault the guy can't even run in a straight line. Two left feet on that dude, for sure."

"Yen's a Taekwondo blackbelt, and he's a pretty active sportsman. I doubt he just tripped on his own feet. He also took out 4 baby zombie dogs by himself." Rohan said, looking pointedly at Jia Jet.

Jia Jet spread his arms wide. "That shrimp's a blackbelt? C'mon. I can take him, easy. Besides, some people just panic, y'know? Probably never faced off against a full-grown zombie dog."

Andrew switched off the radio, and cut in before Rohan could retort.

"Okay, this rain's fucking up the signals, but I managed to get through the HQ. Those zombie dogs are designated Leapers. Anyway, the Army's still floating around off the coast of Singapore. We'll just radio in when we get to the docks. Oh, we got our own codename."

Andrew grinned.

"We are Survivor Group 3, otherwise known as Pitbull. HQ is Doghouse."

He looked around, expecting some cheers. He deflated when everyone just looked at him.

"Yay. We have a codename." Zhi Ming commented sarcastically.

Andrew sighed. "Having a codename is a tradition in the Army. Not having one is a jinx."

Zhi Ming shrugged. "Whatever. Anyway, this rain doesn't look like it's letting up. Kong Yaw, go bring Yen Wei back. No one is allowed to stray too far or too long away from the group."

Kong Yaw nodded, and walked away. Zhi Ming assigned watch shifts to a few people, then unrolled his sleeping blanket.

Rohan caught the attention of May Vin, Edmund and Jia Jet. "You guys should get into some dry clothes. Best not to risk pneumonia."

They'd raided a few stores for clothes, back in Melaka. May Vin grabbed an outfit and left. She came back quickly, wringing out the wet clothes. Edmund and Jia Jet left too, quickly changing and coming back. No one liked being alone anymore.

Yen Wei and Kong Yaw came back a few minutes later. Kong Yaw gave Jia Jet a suspicious look.

Jia Jet sighed.

_I'll have to watch that guy. Yen Wei, too. As well as that guy, Jim, I think. Oh well. Nothing the Jet can't handle._

Jia Jet laid back on the blanket he'd been given, and dozed off quickly.

* * *

"I don't trust the new guy."

Yen Wei muttered as he and Mark crawled up a hill. According to Andrew's map, the bridge to Singapore should be visible from the top of the hill.

It had been 2 days since the group had left Jia Jet's town. They'd swung by the gun shop, only to see it had been gutted by a fire. The ammunition and weapons inside had been destroyed. They'd searched the shop, and found a few more rounds for Edmund's shotgun, and Jia Jet's revolvers. The ammo had been stored in a small store behind the shop. It had been slightly damaged by the fire, but the ammo had survived. They'd also found a few binoculars, one of which was hanging from Yen Wei's neck.

Mark grunted as he pulled himself up onto the ridge of the hill.

"I don't know, dude. Sure, he's an arrogant prick, but he seems like an okay guy. Hasn't caused any trouble."

Yen Wei followed Mark up the hill.

"I still don't trust him."

Keeping low, so he wouldn't be spotted outlined against the sky, Yen Wei raised the binoculars to his eyes.

"Shit."

"What is it?"

Yen Wei passed the binoculars to Mark.

"We've got a problem."

Mark raised the binoculars.

"Oh. Shit."

The bridge was blocked by a huge barricade that looked intimidating, and impregnable. But that wasn't a problem. Mark was sure that, given enough time, they'd figure a way around or over it. The problem was what was in _front_ of the barricade.

A huge mob of zombies, so thick Mark couldn't see through them with the binoculars, milled around. Mark could make out the huge bulk of at least 4 Little Brothers, stomping around, casually knocking away any zombie that got too close.

As Mark watched, a Leaper brought down a zombie, and dragged it away from the mob so it could eat without being bumped into by other zombies. Mark could make out a huge pack of Leapers lying around, either eating or sleeping off their meals.

"We've only got one rocket left for the bazooka. And that sure as hell ain't gonna punch their way through. And those Leapers will be on Jim the minute he fires his sniper rifle."

Yen Wei and Mark went back to camp and told the others what they'd found.

It was decided that Zhi Ming and Andrew would go back with Yen Wei and Mark to see it for themselves.

Zhi Ming cursed softly as he lowered the binoculars.

"I don't see a way through that clusterfuck of zombies."

"I told you" Yen Wei said morosely.

Zhi Ming sighed, and and rubbed his stomach absently.

"We've got enough food for a few more days. Maybe something will happen. And we can always scavenge the surrounding towns for food."

With that decision, the group headed back to camp.

* * *

A week passed, and still the horde stayed. In fact, the horde seemed to get bigger.

The food supply was running low. Zhi Ming sent Jia Jet, Jim, Sally and Susan to get food from one of the towns.

That had been this morning. It was almost midnight now.

May Vin leaned against a tree, struggling to stay awake. It was her turn to stand watch, along with Mark.

A sound made her look up. Jia Jet stood at the edge of the clearing, illuminated by the light from the dying fire. His clothes were covered in dirt and dried blood. He took one step towards the fire, and collapsed to the ground.

"Jia Jet!"

May Vin ran over, and helped him to a sitting position. Jia Jet smiled weakly.

"Hey, May Vin."

By this time, everyone was up. Some food was prepared, and brought to Jia Jet, who ate it gratefully. While he was eating, Zhi Ming asked "Where's the food? And the others?"

Jia Jet wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, and started to tell the gathered group what had happened.

_Jia Jet kicked down the door to the supermarket, and the group headed inside. Jia Jet was busy shoving cans of food into a sack when he heard gunshots, followed by Jim's screams._

_Jia Jet dropped his sack, and ran towards the sounds while Susan and Sally's screams joined Jim's._

_He turned a corner just in time to see a Leaper rip out Jim's throat, silencing him. A pack of Leapers were devouring the family. As Jia Jet watched, Susan and Sally had their throats ripped out, and the Leapers set about gorging themselves. Some of the blood sprayed, splashing onto him._

_Jia Jet stumbled back, then turned and ran. He hid in a room for most of the day, then picked his way home._

When Jia Jet finished his story, Zhi Ming sighed, and shook his head.

"That town's the closest one to us, and we really need the food. We don't have enough to last us a trip to any other town. That, and we need Jim's rifle."

Zhi Ming stood, brushing himself off.

"Yen, how're your arms?"

Yen Wei lifted his forearms. The bandages were off, and only a few small scabs were left. The rest of the skin was covered in scars.

"It's not pretty, but they're good to go."

Zhi Ming nodded.

"Mark, Yen, May Vin, Andrew, Kong Yaw, Shawn, you guys come with me and Jia Jet. We need to get the food. We'll go at dawn tomorrow."

* * *

Zhi Ming surveyed the building through his binoculars.

"I don't see any Leapers."

Jia Jet gritted his teeth. "We didn't see them on the way in, either. They're there. I know it."

Yen Wei finished reloading his shotgun. He'd borrowed it from Edmund.

"A couple shots from this'll sort em out."

Zhi Ming snorted. "Since you're so eager, you get to take point."

* * *

Yen Wei eased past the door Jia Jet had kicked down earlier. Sticking his head in, he scanned the area, then gestured for the others to join him. When the entire group was in the building, Zhi Ming told them the plan.

"Jia Jet, Shawn, May Vin, go get the food. We'll look for Jim. Jia Jet, point us in the direction you saw Jim die."

Yen Wei winced at the way Zhi Ming casually referred to Jim's death. He hadn't known the guy well, but he seemed like a good man.

"Okay, keep your earphones plugged into your radios. Keep in contact, don't wander off."

After Yen Wei's first encounter with the Leapers, the survivors had realized the crucial drawback of the walkie-talkies.

They were noisy. And with the Leapers' highly sensitive hearing, the walkie-talkies could get you killed.

So, they'd broken into a computer shop, and taken as many earphones as they could.

Mark led the way past the corner, looking for Jim, or what was left for him. The group hadn't seen any hints as to the whereabouts of the family's carcasses.

"Hold up."

Zhi Ming spoke up, eyes on the ground. Kong Yaw followed his gaze. There was a dark patch on the floor, contrasting with the white tiles. Zhi Ming knelt and touched it with a finger.

"I think it's blood."

"More of it over here."

Mark called out. Zhi Ming stood up. "Let's see where the blood leads."

The group followed the blood stains, which eventually led them to a closed door. Yen Wei raised an eyebrow.

"Since when could Leapers close doors?"

Mark shrugged, and eased open the door and stepped through, his rifle raised.

"What the hell.."

The rest of the group followed him through, and stared at the scene in front of them. Without a word, Yen Wei turned and ran out the door. After a few seconds, the others followed him.

Lying inside the room were three bodies. Jim and Susan lay in a pile off to the side, their bodies peppered with bullet wounds. Sally lay spread eagled in the middle of the room, a neat, round hole between her eyes. Her clothes lay in shreds around her.

* * *

Shawn held open the sack as May Vin threw in cans of food. Jia Jet stood near the door to the store room they'd found.

Shawn turned towards Jia Jet, wanting to ask him to help out. The words died on his lips as he looked down the barrel of Jia Jet's revolver. There was a flash, and Shawn hit the ground. He never heard May Vin's scream.

"SHAWN!!"

May Vin's head rocked back as Jia Jet punched her.

"Shut the hell up." He growled, before turning back and locking the door to the store room.

May Vin reached for her pistol, but her hand met empty air.

"Looking for this?" Jia Jet twirled her pistol around a finger before tossing it into a corner. The pistol was quickly followed by Jia Jet's revolvers. He licked his lips as he walked towards her.

"Now, it's just you, me, and the Missile."

Jia Jet lunged forward, hands reaching for May Vin at the same time she pulled out a pair of spiked knuckles and punched him in the face. Jia Jet screamed as the spikes ripped gashes into his face.

He lashed out wildly, catching May Vin in the stomach. As she doubled over, Jia Jet kicked her in the head. May Vin fell to the ground, too dazed to get up. Jia Jet stood over her, blood dripping from his face, and started unbuckling his belt.

Jia Jet had just pulled off his pants when the hinges of the door where blown off, and Mark charged into the room, rifle raised. Seconds later, the others followed. Smoke was still curling from the barrel of the shotgun in Yen Wei's hands. Mark raised his rifle, pointing it at Jia Jet, and was about to pull the trigger when Zhi Ming stopped him.

"I've got a better idea. Find some rope, and tie him up. We bring him back to camp."

Jia Jet sneered. "What makes you think you can make me go with you?"

Yen Wei growled, his face dark with rage. He walked towards Jia Jet, who was still half-naked.

"Give me ten seconds." Yen Wei said, His voice dangerously soft.

* * *

Jia Jet groaned as he woke up. His head felt like it had been hit by a truck. He tried to rest his head on his hands, but discovered he couldn't move his arms. Or his legs, for that matter.

Jia Jet opened his eyes to find that he'd been tied to a pole that had been stuck into the ground. He raised his head, and saw that he was relatively close to the barricade blocking the bridge. He could see the mob of zombies, the Leapers, and the Little Brothers milling around.

"About time you woke up."

Jia Jet whipped his head around. Yen Wei stood there, arms crossed. Around his waist, Yen Wei wore Jia Jet's revolvers. The hilt of Jia Jet's katana stuck out above Yen Wei's right shoulder. He smirked when he saw Jia Jet's expression.

Zhi Ming stood next to Yen Wei. Zhi Ming tossed a stick to Yen Wei.

"You know what to do."

Yen Wei's smirk grew. He walked towards Jia Jet.

"This stick has been wrapped with magnesium ribbons, making it a relatively effective flare."

Yen Wei shoved the stick down the front of Jia Jet's pants.

"It also burns pretty hot. This might hurt a little bit."

Yen Wei lit the flare with a Bunsen burner before walking away. Jia Jet threw his body around in a desperate effort to dislodge the stick, but he only made it slide further down his pants.

"The mob doesn't seem to have noticed him." Zhi Ming observed.

Yen Wei unholstered a revolver and shot Jia Jet in the foot. The Leapers perked up when they heard the gunshot, and started running towards the source of Jia Jet's screams.

Yen Wei grinned as he pushed a cartridge into the revolver.

"Time to go."

Yen Wei and Zhi Ming quickly rejoined the others, and the group slipped over the barricade while the mob was moving towards Jia Jet, who was illuminated by the flare.

Yen Wei checked a watch he'd taken from an electronics store.

12.27 in the afternoon.

Behind him, Jia Jet's screams rose in pitch as the flare burned lower into his pants, and the smell of burning flesh filled his nose.


End file.
